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york28 · Jun 4, 2003, 05:33 PM

I have an old Performa 6360. It speeds along at 160 mhz and has 56 meg RAM.

I am considering putting a big HD in it and trying to get it to run as a file server/media server, running mldonkey 24/7 and that sort of thing. Unfortunately OS 9 (or 8....or 7) don't run any of the programs that I would like to use.

So I figured that some flavor of Linux might do. I don't really need a GUI at all, but I guess a minimalistic one might be nice sometimes. I planned on running it headless for the most part though.

My question is if it is up to the task, or if there's nothing that I can really do with it.

Thanks for the input.

Xeo · Jun 4, 2003, 07:33 PM

Sounds like a perfect job for it. I'm sure it'll download and upload files just fine. I say go for it.

Ludovic Hirlimann · Jun 5, 2003, 02:06 AM

Originally posted by york28:
I have an old Performa 6360. It speeds along at 160 mhz and has 56 meg RAM.

So I figured that some flavor of Linux might do. I don't really need a GUI at all, but I guess a minimalistic one might be nice sometimes. I planned on running it headless for the most part though.

My question is if it is up to the task, or if there's nothing that I can really do with it.

Donkey's and friends use up mucho memory. So 56 Meg might be a bit small however giving the machine a lot a swap might help.

Has for the linux flavor, you will not have the choice there's only one way ti run linux on that kind of machine and it's called mklinux . Yellowdog does not support that model. NetBSD neither.

Arkham_c · Jun 5, 2003, 08:54 AM

I used to run Linux on a 486DX/33 and it ran fine. You need to run a lightweight window manager (no KDE or Gnome, go with fvwm or something like that), but it should be fine.

bluedog · Jun 5, 2003, 10:26 AM

The 6360 was a 603e PPC chip if I remember correctly. The standard distributions have passed you by in terms of hardware support.

Since the firmware is older and only partially implemented on this hardware it won't be the full plug-n-play.

The bootloader will be something you'll have to set up on your own for this type of machine. Its not too bad, but if you've never done it before its tricky.

Also, you'll have to be sure to get the kernel that supports your machine (this may be included in the latest distros, I don't recall).

Take your time, read the directions,
and you'll enjoy it when its done!

benb · Jun 5, 2003, 10:51 AM

Originally posted by bluedog:
The 6360 was a 603e PPC chip if I remember correctly. The standard distributions have passed you by in terms of hardware support.

Since the firmware is older and only partially implemented on this hardware it won't be the full plug-n-play.

Not true. The 6360 is basically a PowerMac 5400's cousin, so you can run most distro's on it, but you probably will not get the GUI up and running. If you plan to do this headless, the command line would be fine.

Yellowdog will recognize most devices such as keyboard, mouse, ethernet, and your modem. I have a PowerTowerPro running it fine, and it even recognized the USB PCI card I installed. YMMV, but give it a shot.

york28 · Jun 5, 2003, 12:48 PM

Ok, I think I will go for it, and try installing Yellow Dog onto it's current drive, a 1.2 gigger, without any xfree86 or anything, just to see if i can get the command line up and running.

Looks like I can upgrade the RAM to 136 for about 40 bucks.

My other question is about G3 upgrade cards, which fit in the cache slot. They usually require some sort of OS 8 extension to activate, but since from my research it looks like Linux has to boot off of the Mac OS anyhow, as long as that extension loads before BootX, will that make it active after the Linux kernal loads? I've seen some advice online saying it will work, and a little more saying it won't. Anyone know the reality behind it?

Thansks again for all your help.

bluedog · Jun 5, 2003, 08:55 PM

I've installed linux on a 6100, 7300, 7600, 8500 and the extensions to enable the L2 cache on those that had it worked. You could tell the difference from when you installed (with the extension not enabled) and then set up the L2 cache loader in the BootX booting partition.

I'm sure you will be happy with it when its up and running.

Thanks benb for correcting me. I only did some upgrades on a 6360 for a friend back a few years now and didn't remember the specs of this particular machine.

Good luck!

bracken · Jun 6, 2003, 06:04 PM

Install Debian. Choose what you want. No bloat. Be happy.

vsurfer · Jun 7, 2003, 06:28 PM

Originally posted by Arkham_c:
I used to run Linux on a 486DX/33 and it ran fine. You need to run a lightweight window manager (no KDE or Gnome, go with fvwm or something like that), but it should be fine.

Which flavor of Linux did you run on that ole DX -- I've got one gathering dust in the basement, just the ticket for a project

york28 · Jun 10, 2003, 12:22 PM

I've gotten YDL 2.3 installed, but the only install I can do without it failing is the "Basic" install. Which works ok but doesn't install much. There is a custon option but I'm not sure of what I need exactly (or want). I originally picked this distro so I'd only need to burn one cd, but I'd be willing to try another.

So I've heard suggestion for Debian, but I have a feeling that I'm not experienced enough for it yet. So would YDL 3.0 be the way to go, or Mandrake? My ultimate goal is to get a basic window manager running, and then hopefully mldonkey too.

The other idea I was tossing around was maybe trying out BeOS. I know it's beyond dead for macs at this point, but not much new software is going to run on the 6360 with even the newest linux distro. I'd have to give up the mldonkey idea, but it would still play media fine.

benb · Jun 10, 2003, 01:02 PM

Originally posted by york28:
I've gotten YDL 2.3 installed, but the only install I can do without it failing is the "Basic" install. Which works ok but doesn't install much. There is a custon option but I'm not sure of what I need exactly (or want). I originally picked this distro so I'd only need to burn one cd, but I'd be willing to try another.

So I've heard suggestion for Debian, but I have a feeling that I'm not experienced enough for it yet. So would YDL 3.0 be the way to go, or Mandrake? My ultimate goal is to get a basic window manager running, and then hopefully mldonkey too.

How much free HD space do you have? You could also manually install the RPM's you need as you need them. Mount the cd ("mount /mnt/cdrom") then cd to YellowDog/ppc and use "rpm -i package.name" to install. The basic install is very basic, and you'll have to install emacs, gcc, cpp, and the kernel headers via rpm if you want to do anything more with it.

As far as getting a window manager running, good luck with YDL, I dont think it will support the default YDL one X11. Don't know about Mandrake or Debian though.

Linux is awsome once you get it working, but getting it working can be hell. I am trying to set up CUPS, but I cannot always access the printer on /dev/usb/lp0. No idea whyy not though. But I know that once I sort it out, I won't have to think about the server except when I back up every week.